Tahira Shaheen: Willetton schoolgirl hit-and-run driver apologises, court told she has intellectual disability

The mother of a girl who was seriously hurt in a hit-and-run outside a Perth school is angry the driver’s sentencing has been held up by a finding she has problem-solving skills of a six-year-old child. Tahira Shaheen allegedly did not hold a driver’s licence when she struck Alexis Lloyd on a busy pedestrian crossing outside Willetton Senior High School during the morning drop-off on June 27, 2023 - then fled the scene. The 12-year-old suffered a broken collarbone and needed emergency surgery for her leg. And according to her mother Tory Carter, the now Year 9 student still has deep psychological scars. Shaheen, of Maddington, was found almost two months later on August 21, and charged with failing to stop and ensure assistance after an incident causing grievous bodily harm, and failing to alert police. The 51-year-old was due to be sentenced in the District Court of WA on Tuesday. But Judge Laura Christian said she could not proceed after a psychological report concluded Shaheen had the verbal abilities of a 10-year-old and the non-verbal problem-solving abilities of a child of six. Judge Christian was incredulous that State prosecutors had accepted the assessment - admitting there was not enough information in the report to draw a causal link to the offending - yet called for an immediate jail term without requesting further information. The judge said she could not reconcile the psychologist’s finding with the offender having completed two years of college in Pakistan and holding a driver’s licence there. “It’s just not adding up,” Judge Christian said. “I’m not prepared, on this material, to accept it.” The judge noted that the verbal component of the testing had a bias as English was not Shaheen’s first language and ordered a neuropsychological report, adjourning sentencing to October 17. Outside court, Ms Carter said she was not convinced by the test results. “I just think it is a joke . . . She’s been granted a full driver’s licence since the incident,” Ms Carter said. “I find it very hard to believe that if she is intellectually disabled, that the husband . . .when the police knocked on the door, that he didn’t come straight out and say ‘my wife is intellectually disabled’. “It’s a stalling tactic and it’s not fair.” Ms Carter said her daughter woke up in tears during her first night in hospital “because she thought the person who did it . . . was coming to get her”. She did the same on Thursday morning, but that was from the ongoing pain in her leg, Ms Carter said. “And she’s got all the scars. “She still has ongoing orthopaedic appointments at the children’s hospital. “She’s been diagnosed with PTSD, so she still has regular psychology appointments, and has since been diagnosed with ADHD as well. “She’s very nervous around busy roads. “People need to know that you can’t hit a child, drive off and not come forward.” Shaheen said she was sorry. “I am a mother, I am a woman,” she told reporters. “I am not an angel. I am a human. “I am not doing it intentionally. It was an accident.” Shaheen also faces a charge of no authority to drive (never held) in Perth Magistrates Court on October 17.